http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif Secularism, religion, and the public sphere Thu, 18 Mar 2010 15:54:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/2010/03/04/the-wages-of-engagement/ http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/2010/03/04/the-wages-of-engagement/#comments Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:28:53 +0000 Michael Barnett http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/?p=9308 “Engaging Religious Communities Abroad: A New Imperative for U.S. Foreign Policy” is an ambitious, thoughtful, and thought-provoking report that makes for necessary reading. Public discussions of religion are always difficult, and any attempt to forge a path for the United States to engage religion in world affairs is destined to leave controversy in its wake. Accordingly, the authors deserve considerable credit for confronting a cluster of hot-button issues---and, moreover, for doing so through a comprehensive and wide-ranging dialogue that included a broad spectrum of opinions.  This report should be debated and discussed, not necessarily because it answers the difficult questions to everyone’s satisfaction, but rather because it confronts the difficult questions and tries, with honesty and integrity, to propose possible solutions. I was a member of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs' Task Force on Religion and the Making of U.S. Foreign Policy that informed the report, and, while I proudly associate myself with it, there are two issues that worry me.]]> http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/2010/03/04/the-wages-of-engagement/feed/ 0 http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/2008/03/17/remaking-the-world/ http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/2008/03/17/remaking-the-world/#comments Mon, 17 Mar 2008 22:09:46 +0000 Michael Barnett http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/2008/03/17/remaking-the-world/ http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/2008/03/17/remaking-the-world/feed/ 0